I, just like some of you,
Would need to clean their shoes,
When the clouds would cry,
Often accompanied with a sigh,
Because mum had said so (and you know better),
That it's better to do it now than later,

There was a time when this pair was new,
I remember it, one of my treasured few,
I had walked across all sorts of muds and puddles,
And just like me, it was tattered from crossing all those hurdles,

And just like me, it was loose and worn out,
Dusty and scarred from the rocks on the pavements,
Maybe it wanted to cry out,
Or maybe I just wanted it to speak about my laments,

Whatever it could be, I would like to think,
(And I know that this is an absurd link,)
That people wipe theirs on the mat to hide,
Those bloodied footprints of their scars left inside,

Soap suds and salty tears,
A fragment of my past and my fears,
All washed down into the drain as those black bits,
As I lay my shoes to dry, shiny and rinsed.

*Thanks for the idea @Jeffrey! 🌺 I really hope you like this poem as much as I have enjoyed writing it. It is a rather unusual and weird topic for me to take up, but I've tried to do justice to it. 😅 Here is to all the ambiverts, introverts, extroverts and any other - verts who are going through a tough time right now. A reminder that this too shall pass. 🌟*

© amyd